Biblical Salvation Puts to D..

Okay, very good. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. I'm going to invite you, brethren, to please open up your Bibles to the Book of Galatians, Galatians chapter 5. Today we're going to continue with our series of studies in which we are trying to understand biblical salvation.

We are going to arrive to the end of this short series that we have that we're doing through biblical salvation. And as I said, I'm calling your attention to Galatians 5. Today we're going to be addressing together Galatians 5, verses 16 through 25. And we are going to be making a final assertion or statement about biblical salvation. And that is that biblical salvation puts to death the flesh, its desires and its passions.

And I'm getting the title to my sermon, or at least the idea for the title to my sermon from verse 24. If you pay attention there to Galatians chapter five, verse 24, it says, and those Galatians 5, 24, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified or put to death the flesh with its passions and desires. So today we're going to be making the assertion that biblical salvation puts to death the flesh with its desires and its passions. I'm going to be inviting you to read with me from verse 16 all the way through verse 25. But before we come and read the scriptures together, let us come before the Lord and let us pray that he will be among us as we proclaim the word.

And as you receive the word, let us pray. Father, Lord, we come before you in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we give you thanks for your kindness, your goodness towards us, that you have rescued us from our sins and our trespasses by the completed work of Jesus Christ. Lord, I give you thanks because it is purely by your grace that we can have entrance before your presence. It is purely by your grace that we can be called the children of God.

It is purely by your grace that we can be forgiven. It is purely by your grace, Lord, that we can be your family. As we come before You, Lord, and as we have the Scriptures before us, I pray, O Lord, that Your Holy Spirit will be among us, not only leading us to speak, but also leading us to receive Your Word. We know that faith comes by hearing and hearing the words of the Lord, Lord, and we need that our faith will be strengthened. We need that Your presence in us and among us will be manifested by the power of Your Holy Word.

that we will see Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and that we will be assured and certain of the completed and finished work of our Savior, that when we are tempted to look inside, into our minds, into our hearts, into our performance, that by the Holy Spirit and through the testimony of your Word we might be pointed outside to Jesus Christ, and that we may know that it is finished. As we come now to this scripture, Lord, I pray that You will guide us in truth, that You will speak to us according to Your will. Your Word is sufficient for everything that Your people need. So I pray, O Lord, that You will give us the encouragement that we need through the Word of God, that You will give us the direction that we need through the Word of the Lord, that You will teach us more about the cross and the completed work of Jesus Christ through Your Word, that You will give us consolation if we need consolation, and that you will give us exhortation if we need exhortation. We praise you, Lord, and we're not coming to worship ourselves or emotions or feelings, but we're coming to worship you.

And I pray, O Lord, that it's now through the preaching of your word that you will grant us by your Holy Spirit the freedom that is needed for us to speak according to your will and that your people will be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Lord, now, as we consider this idea of our death to the flesh and to our passions and to our desires, Lord, I pray that you will grant us the freedom and the truth that is needed for us to understand the powerful work of the scriptures and of your gospel in each one of your people. And I pray that you will do that in Jesus name. Amen. Very good, brethren.

As I said, we're going to be reading together from verse 16 through verse 25. And I'm going to ask Loretta if you can just Loretta. Larita, if you can just please give me a little bit of this one so I don't have to be so close. Thank you. We're going to be reading from verse 16 through verse 25.

That is going to be the reading of God's Word. This is the Word of the Lord. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things that you want to do.

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, feats of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, or things like this, I warn you, and as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, and joy, and peace, and patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.

and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with his passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Amen. That is going to be a reading. This is the Word of the Lord.

Now, my dear brother and sister, up to this point we have tried to understand together this concept of biblical salvation. And what I have tried to do in these last two couple of months is to put assertions or statements that will help us understand what biblical salvation is. Actually, this is going to be the final statement that we make about biblical salvation. As I said, we're going to be saying today that those who are saved, that biblical salvation puts to death the flesh, its desires and its passions. And as we have been trying to understand biblical salvation, I have made five statements before that I hope helps us understand the nature of biblical salvation.

First, if you remember, a couple of months ago, I said that biblical salvation requires the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation of faith comes by hearing, and hearing the word of the Lord. And it's in the gospel of Jesus Christ that we find the word of the Lord and the completed work of Jesus Christ. So the Apostle says that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. So we said that biblical salvation requires the message, the proclamation of the gospel.

In the church, we come to hear about Christ and his completed work. There's no other message that brings salvation but the message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the context of the Christian community, we are not to look to self, to our works, or to our performance, but we are to look to the completed and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ and how that is applied by the Spirit to those who are genuinely saved. That's why we say that Biblical salvation requires the proclamation of the gospel. The second statement that we made a few weeks ago is that biblical salvation produces a new life.

Biblical salvation is not only a change of mind and now that I decide to join a group of people that I feel that I'm close to, but rather biblical salvation produces transformation, a new life. And we study that from Ephesians chapter 2, you may remember. And we say that before Christ Jesus, we are dead in our sins and our trespasses. And it's when the Spirit of God comes and the biblical salvation takes place, that there is a change of heart and the biblical salvation produces a new life. A new life that is now being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Before we were dead and now when Biblical salvation has arrived by the power of the Spirit. Now the person has a new life in Christ Jesus. After that, we said that this biblical salvation that is the result of the proclamation of the gospel and also produces a new life, this is a biblical salvation that is safe, that is secure, that is guarded. You may remember that we studied that from 1 Peter 1. And we said that is the mercy of the Lord, the one who has given us eternal life.

So it is the mercy of the Lord, the one that is going to keep us and preserve us until the end for the living hope that is reserved, that is kept in heaven. for us. So when a person is biblically and genuinely saved by the power of the Holy Spirit through the proclamation of the gospel with a new life, then God is going to keep, he's going to preserve that person by his power through faith. This is the result of what it is to be biblically saved. We have also said that the biblical salvation that we have received in the Lord also produces biblical obedience.

We studied that, if you remember, from verse John chapter 1. And we said that when the Holy Spirit comes into a person and that person, through the proclamation of the gospel, receives a new life and the promise that is going to be kept and preserved, now this person, by the presence of the Spirit in them, is going to not only know the truth, But that person is going to practice the truth, because the person who does not practice the truth, 1 John 1, is a spiritual liar. But the genuine Christian is one that now practices the truth, because the Spirit of God is in them and is going to lead them to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. So the message of the gospel that produces a new life and gives us the promise that we are going to be kept and guarded until the end empowers us also to hear the voice of Christ and to obey and to walk as he walked. And it's also by this power of the Spirit that makes us obedient that we said last week that biblical obedience produces in us gifts that we are supposed to use for the service of brothers and sisters.

The purpose of the Christian life is not only that we have eternal life in heaven, but the purpose of Christ Jesus in us is that just as He gave His life for us, we will give our lives for brothers and sisters in the context of the church. That is what John says in 1 John 3, verse 16. Biblical salvation produces in us gifts that we are supposed to use for the service of brothers and sisters. And we study that from verse Peter, chapter 4, verse 10 and 11. These gifts that come from the grace of the Lord, that we're to be good stewards of these gifts as we serve the brothers and sisters.

These gifts that we discern through the scriptures, the church, the power of the Spirit, and the providence of the Lord in our lives. Today, we come to the final statement that we're going to be making here in this series of studies, and that is that biblical salvation puts to death flesh its desires and its passions. As I said to you there, we have the statement found in verse 24 of the fifth chapter. It says the Apostle there, and those who belong to Jesus Christ or to Christ Jesus, have crucified the flesh with its passions and with its desires. The apostle tells us that something has taken place with those who belong to Christ Jesus.

Something that has not happened to those who do not belong to Christ Jesus. And that which has happened to those who belong to Christ Jesus is that they have crucified the flesh with its passions and with its desires. What is the meaning of that? What is the meaning of the flesh being dead? What is the meaning of the passions being dead?

What is the meaning of the desires of the flesh being dead? I don't know about you, but certainly about me, I know that the passions of my flesh are not dead, that they are still there and that I'm tempted to see and I'm tempted to think and I'm tempted to say what does the Apostle mean by saying in verse 24 that those who are in Christ have crucified the flesh passions and desires. Does this mean that a genuine Christian will never be tempted in their passions or in their desires as some people may say? that once a person has been genuinely saved by the power of the Spirit, then that person will never sin again. And if that person sins, then that means that that person is not a Christian.

As some people believe in sinless perfectionism, which is called, people believe genuinely in this world that there's going to be a better, that Christians will not sin. Or we go to the other extreme. Perhaps this promise that we have here in verse 24 is not a promise that is given to the Christian now, but this is a future promise perhaps in which we live in grace and a grace that is available and abundant. And certainly we can sin and give our lives into sin and to the passions and desires. Why?

Because perhaps verse 24 is a future reality that is to come only in glory when we die and we see the Lord Jesus Christ? How are we to understand the fact that the Apostle tells us that our flesh is dead with its passions and with its desires? Let me submit to you, my dear brother and sister, that this is perhaps one of the most important topics in the practical life of the Christian. Because when a person is saved, there is a sense in which we begin a new relationship, a new set of relationships. The first relationship and the most important of those is a new relationship with God.

Before we were Christians, we were enemies of God and we were under the wrath of the Lord. But once the grace of the Lord comes, we initiate, we begin a new relationship with God. Now we are friends of God and we are in the family of God. We're no longer under His wrath. In the same sense, there's also a new relationship that we start, a relationship with the world.

The same apostle is going to say in chapter 6 that we have been crucified to the world, and the world has been crucified to us. In other words, before we were Christians, we were taken by the curse and the stream of this world, and once the grace of the Lord is given to us, We are dead to the world and now we are alive in Jesus Christ. But among those sets of relationships that we start, one very important new relationship that we start as Christians is a relationship with sin. The sin that before enslaved us, the sin that before was our master, now no longer is our master, because Jesus Christ is our master. And we have a new relationship not only with Jesus Christ, who is our Lord, but we have a new relationship with sin.

The sin that was unleashed on us, that was our master, now it is a sin that we can fight by the power of his grace. And that is what the Apostle refers here when he says that those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with his passions and his desires. There's a sense that a very important question can be asked of those who read this passage, and that question is, have you crucified your flesh? Have you crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires? What is the meaning of that from a biblical point of view, that we have put to death our flesh and our desires and our passions?

So I want us to make some observations from this text, brethren, that perhaps is going to help us understand that simple question. What does it mean? that my flesh as a Christian and your flesh as a Christian has been crucified with its passions and its desires. I want us to do a couple of things from this text. And the first one of those is that I want to point you to perhaps three, to four, or perhaps five, depending on the time, observations from this text that are going to help us understand what is the meaning of having our flesh crucified with its passions and our desires.

I submit to you that these observations that we are going to be making from the text are not only going to help us understand the meaning of what is to have the flesh crucified and its passions and its desires, but more importantly, I hope it will point us to the life of the Christian in Christ and how we are supposed to relate. not only to God, to this world, but also to our sin. Four or five observations that I want us to make in order to understand that, and hopefully by the end I will point you to the main point of the Apostle, and that is that we are supposed to walk in the Spirit. Let me start with the first one that we're going to find there in verse 16. Pay attention to verse 16.

In verse 16, the Apostle is going to give us an exhortation and I command. And that is going to be that we are supposed to walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. The exhortation of the call of the Apostle is that we as Christians, the Galatians who received this letter initially, but us as Christians, that we are to walk by the Spirit, or that we are to walk in the Spirit, so that if we walk by the Spirit, or if we walk in the Spirit, something is going to happen. And what happens is that we are not going to satisfy, or that we are not going to gratify the desires of the flesh. The first thing that I want to point to from that verse is not what is explicitly stated there, But rather, what is implicitly stated there, and that is that the Christian, even though it is able by the Spirit to walk in the Spirit, the Christian also has the desires of the flesh present within themselves.

And that is the first thing that we need to understand. As Christians, we are to understand that the presence of the flesh, the presence of our passions, the presence of our desires are going to remain within us because sin is going to be within us until the moment in which we die or the moment in which the Lord Jesus Christ comes and takes us to be in glory. The first thing that we need to understand is this. The presence of the flesh, the presence of desires, the presence of passions is going to be within us. That's why the Apostle is given this instruction that we are to walk in the Spirit.

Because if we do not walk by the Spirit, then we are going to gratify the desires of the flesh that is still present within us. Praise God that the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is enough to deal with the penalty of our sin, which is death. The wages of sin is death, and the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ fully satisfies that so that we are no longer under the death that we deserve. But when it comes to the presence of sin, the cross is sufficient to deal with it, but the final consummation of the presence of sin being removed from us It's not going to happen in the moment in which we have faith, but rather it's in the moment in which we are glorified, in the moment in which we died, in the moment in which the Lord Jesus Christ comes to take His bride. So that means that as Christians, we are to acknowledge and understand that within us, even though we have been saved by grace, the presence of the flesh is still going to be within us.

The presence of sin is still going to be within us with its passions and with its desires. And what are those works of the flesh? Or what are those passions of the flesh? Well, the Apostle has mentioned in verse 19. Pay attention to verse 19.

The apostle is going to give us insight into this presence of sin, the flesh, passions, or desires. Verse 19, it says, now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, feats of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like this. The Apostle has now there expressed what are those works of the flesh, those works of sin, those passions and those desires. And we can see there from verse 19 and 20 that certainly that's not a least that is exhaustive of all the passions and of all the desires and of all the sin that a person can experience.

Certainly, there's more passions and there's more desires. But one of the important things that we learn there in verse 19 and 20, it is that these passions of the flesh, or that these works of the flesh, they are not only external, something that can be seen clearly as unrighteousness, but rather it's also something that is internal. Of course, we see there sexual immorality, impurities, sensuality, idolatry, all of those things that on the eyes of people are clearly unrighteous. But the Apostle is not only referring to things that are clearly unrighteous and openly wicked, the Apostle also speaks of matters of the heart, such as envy, or contentions, or divisions, or rivalries, or hatred, things that happen within the heart of a person. When the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ comes, And we are saved and we are redeemed from the death that we deserve because of those passions and those sins that we had before the Lord Jesus Christ saved us.

But we are to understand something, my dear brother and sister, that the presence of sin remains within us. It is true that we are going to be sanctified. It is true that we are going to grow in conformity to Jesus Christ. It is true that we are going to learn his ways and that we're going to become more and more like him. But we need to understand that the presence of sin is going to remain within us.

Now, this is not an excuse for us to be given unto those sins. That is not an excuse for us to leave those passions and those works that we find in verse 19. Because the Apostle tells us that those who do those things will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. But we are to acknowledge that the presence of sin is still within us. And the more that we understand the holiness of God and the unrighteousness of my heart, the more that I can be humble before the presence of God.

Because let me submit to you, I don't need to know much of your details or much of your life or much of your thoughts. The only thing that I need to know is that you are a human and that you have the presence of sin within you to know that everyone within this room or within the sound of my voice He's capable of following the works of the flesh that are listed there in verse 19 and 20. The reason why we might not be given over onto these passions is purely by the restraining grace of God that does not allow that which is inside of us to be manifested in its fullness. But it's important that we understand that within our hearts, within our minds, within our souls, there is someone that is present, something that is present. That is sin, and that sin has the ability to produce works of the flesh that condemn a person and send them to hell.

They will not enter the kingdom of heaven. This is the presence of sin that is present or is inside of us. And the reason, from a practical point of view, I suppose, why it is important for us to understand that sin is going to remain present within us is so that we as Christians avoid two practical errors that are very common in the Christian life. One extreme is going to be the extreme of self-righteousness, and the other extreme is going to be the extreme of self-condemnation. If we do not biblically understand that sin is present inside of us, that we are capable of all of these things that we have read, we are not humble enough to submit to the ways of the Lord and to think that we can live our lives in our own power, in our own strength, and we have the threat of self-righteousness.

First, John. Chapter 1, verse 5, we read that last week, in which the Apostle says, But if we walk in the light, the apostle says, as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of his son Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have not seen, the apostle says, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is just and faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not seen in us, we make God a liar, and his word is not in us.

Self-righteousness. If we do not biblically understand that sin is going to be present within us, we're going to be tempted to believe that we can be good and moral in our own works and in our own deeds. It is only a matter of experience. It is only a matter of years for a person to believe that in themselves They find what is needed for them to live a righteous life. That is the tendency of our hearts to want to attribute unto ourselves performance and accolades and to think of us as someone that is great and someone that is powerful, self-righteousness.

What was the problem of those spiritual liars of 1 John? That is that they did not acknowledge and understood Biblically, that within them was a still presence, sin, and the presence of the flesh, the presence of desires, and the presence of passions. The more that we understand the dangers of what it is inside of us, the more that we are going to depend upon the Lord, not to follow our own ways, but rather to live on the Lord. Now, second, this is not only the risk of self-righteousness, 1 John 1, verses 5-10, but also the risk of self-condemnation. We are told there in Romans 8, verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, those who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

We are told objectively that the Christian, the person who has received the grace of the Lord, there is no condemnation for that person. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ has already paid in fullness that which is the penalty of sin. So hence, there's no going to be condemnation for that person. But when a Christian who is united to the Lord Jesus Christ does not walk by the Spirit, but in the temptations of their hearts, the temptations of their passions, they are given over to their sins and to their desires, Then there is the problem of self-condemnation.

And that is that the person now thinks that because of my performance, because of the sins that I had committed, I have been disconnected from God. And now certainly God hates me because of the sin that I have committed and the things that I have done. Both of those two things, self-righteousness and self-condemnation, are rooted in the same principle. And that is not looking to Christ, but looking to self. The person that is self-righteous looks to self to find a reason to boast in their deeds and performance.

And the self-condemning person, or the person that condemns themselves, is the person that looks to themselves, trying to find the standard of performance to satisfy themselves with their works and deeds instead of looking to the completed and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we understand. that the presence of the flesh and the presence of sin is going to be within us with his passions and desires, this is going to lead us into humility to depend upon the Lord, knowing that the only way that we will not be given over to those passions and those desires that are in us is by walking in the Spirit. It is that the grace of the Lord will illuminate our hearts and minds through the word of the Lord so that we will walk in the Spirit. First, it is very important that we will understand that the presence of sin is within us.

If we return to our text there, now I want to show you to the second thing that we ought to understand. It is that the presence of the sin that is within us, it is not passive, but rather the presence of the sin and the passions that are within us are at war with the Spirit of God that is inside of us. Pay attention to verse 17. It says, For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other.

That is, the desires of the flesh that are still within us, and the desires of the Holy Spirit that is also in us. These desires of these two sides, it says there, they oppose to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do. The second thing that we as Christians ought to understand is not only that the flesh and sin is still present within us, but the presence of that sin is at war with the Holy Spirit and the passions and the desires of the Spirit that is trying to conform us to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is true that we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 5 verse 1.

It is true that we have been justified by faith and no longer are enemies of the Lord. Ephesians chapter 2. It is true now that we are in a peaceful position before the Lord and that we are no longer children of wrath, or children of disobedience. And it's also true that we can experience the peace of what it is to be a Christian. It is true that we can hear the words of Philippians chapter 4 verse 7, and not to be anxious about anything, but with everything, by prayer and supplication, give thanks to the Lord.

It is true that we can experience the peace with God and the peace of God. Even the apostle is going to tell us here that one of the fruit of the Spirit is going to be peace. That is that we can be at peace before the Lord and we can have peace within our lives. But there is a sense, my dear brother and sister, that in the heart and inside of every believer, there is going to be war. There is a sense in which in the mind, in the soul, in the heart of a Christian, there is going to be conflict.

And let me submit to you that it's actually the presence of that conflict within a person that is a sign that the Holy Spirit has come to dwell inside of that person. The apostle Peter, in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 11 and 12 acknowledges that. We can read it together if you come with me to 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 11 and 12. The Apostle is going to acknowledge the presence of those passions, he says, that are in chapter 2, that are at work within us. He says, the Apostle Peter, 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 11 and 12.

1 Peter chapter 2, verse 11 and 12, it says, Verse 11 in chapter 2 of 1 Peter, it says, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles, pay attention to this, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. The Apostle Peter acknowledges that there is a conflict, that there is a war that is happening within the Christian. And this war is against the passions of the flesh. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians chapter 5 that the desires of the spirit are at war with the desires of the flesh. As Christians, we are to acknowledge not only the presence of sin within us, but that that sin is not only there camping or having a picnic inside of our heart, That sin is not only just there witnessing the things that we do, and just simply speaking perhaps here and there, that sin within us is at war with the passions and the desires of the Holy Spirit.

This should make us alert. This should make us dependent. This should make us always wanting to walk according to the ways of the Lord. There is not sufficient spiritual strength within you or within me to overcome the passions of the flesh. I do not have the understanding or the power, the moral ability within me to overcome the passions of the flesh.

Even if you come to James, we are told of a very sad situation about what happens in the context of the church. If you come to James chapter 4, the apostle, or James better, is not only going to acknowledge there the presence of passions within ourselves that are making war, but he's going to tell us that many times the struggles and the difficulties between brethren happen because of those passions that are within us. If you pay attention there to James chapter 4 verse 1 it says, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, James chapter 4 verse 1, is it not this that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder.

You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Or do you suppose that it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us? But he gives more grace, therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And even he continues, set meet yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Difficult, profound words that will not be very well accepted in contemporary Christianity if they are just simply read like that, brethren.

And this is that within us there is war between our passions and the spirit that God has given to us and that's dwelling within ourselves. This word, we are not to ignore it. We are not to think that we have accomplished something. We are not to think that because I have been walking with the Lord for one year, or two years, or five years, or 10, or 30, or 40 years, that we are to think to trust in ourselves and to believe that the experience that now I have is not going to lead me into a path of unrighteousness. We've seen and heard of people who are young and strong, and have the energy within themselves, when they are full of Christianity and the love to the Lord, falling away within one or two or three years of their walking with the Lord.

Why? Because within ourselves, brethren, we don't have a friend. We have an enemy that is in our hearts. And we have also seen and heard of men and women who have been walking with the Lord for 10 and 20 and 30 and 40 and 50 years, that if they do not depend upon the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, they will walk away as the person who is immature in their faith. Why?

Because we are to acknowledge that within ourselves we have the presence of sin and of the flesh, its passions and desires, and that these passions and that these desires are not friends with our emotions, are not friends with our profession of faith, they are enemies of the things of the Lord. And if you return to our text there in verse 17, we are told what is the purpose of this enmity in the final clause of verse 17. We are told that the purpose of this war that is happening within us is that we may not do the things that we want to do. It says in verse 17, pay attention there once again. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.

For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do. And at first glance, that might seem unreasonable. The things that I want to do, the apostle says, that this word that happens between the flesh and between the spirit is to keep me from the things that I want to do. Well, what the Apostle is assuming here in verse 17 is the same thing that he was assuming in Romans chapter 7. And that is that when the Spirit of God comes into a person, then that person now is growing in alignment with the desires of Christ.

So then that person is going to want to please the Lord and want to follow the ways of the Lord. That's why there is war. If the person was a slave to sin, they will not be worried within ourselves, and we will be satisfied, and we will be happy with who we are, and we will consider ourselves to be good. We will consider ourselves to be the example that needs to be followed. We will wake up in the morning with no trouble within ourselves because of the things that we've done or said.

We will just walk through the streets and we will be joyful of who we are if the Spirit of God was not within us. But when the Spirit of God is within us, then by His grace, we are inclined to do the things of God, and then we can say that the delights of the Christian are being aligned with the desires of the Lord. If you quickly come to Romans chapter 7, we can see a very similar language of the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 7. If you read with me, please, from verse 18 in Romans 7. Romans 7, verse 18.

It says, for I know, the apostle says in verse 18, for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh, right? The desires of the flesh, the desires of the spirit, Galatians chapter five, verse 18. For I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is right. but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing."

I know that it's difficult to follow his argument there. Verse 20, Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. Verse 21, So I find it to be a law, that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched men that I am!

Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God within my mind, but within my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is a presence of sin within us that is not our friend, that is not on our side or the side of the things of the Spirit. It is on the side of the flesh.

It is on the side of unrighteousness. And there is war that has happened within the Christian. And the purpose of that word, it is that the passions of the flesh will be that will lead our behavior, not the things of the spirit. What is the will of the Lord for his people? The will of the Lord is their sanctification.

First Thessalonians chapter four, verse seven. The will of the Lord is that we will be sanctified, that we will not be given to sexual immorality or to any of the passions of our flesh, but rather that we will grow in alignment with the will of the Lord, that we will not be conformed to this world or to the things of this world, but that we will renew our minds so that by the testing of these truths and by the testing of things, we may know what is the will of God that is good, perfect and acceptable. Romans chapter 12. The will of the Lord. It is that this power of the Spirit will grow in us, leading us to do the things not of the flesh, but the things of the Spirit.

If we do not acknowledge the presence of sin within us, its passions and desires, and the fact that they are not passive but making war, it is like a city that has been built with very thin walls. And when the enemy is coming, instead of paying attention to the enemy and defending themselves, prepare themselves to the attack of this enemy, they decide to sleep and to enjoy their times within the city, a city that can be easily destroyed. Because the outcome of following the passions of our flesh, the Apostle tells us in verse 19 and 20 if you return to our text, is that the one who does the things of the flesh will not enter into the kingdom of God. The Apostle says in verse 19, and verse 20 and 21 of our text. Pay attention, Galatians chapter 5, verse 19, 20 and 21.

Now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, feats of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like this. And then comes the warning. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Of course, brethren, the Apostle is not saying that if we fall into that once, then we are not going to inherit. The Kingdom of Heaven, where the apostle is referring is to being given to the passions of the flesh.

The one that is enslaved to the things of the presence of sin. The one who does those things. The one who ongoingly, continually is given without any remorse, without any repentance, without any conflict. What they show is that within themselves, They do not have a war between the things of the spirit and between the things of the flesh. What they have within us is a king, and that king is not Christ, but rather that king is their flesh.

And when the king of our hearts and our minds is the flesh with his passions and desires, we have the warning of the scriptures there is that we will not inherit the kingdom of God. My dear brother and sister, there are many things that are difficult to say that come from the scriptures, and certainly this idea of us having to die to the works of our flesh, our passions and desires, is one of them. But let me submit to you that biblical Christianity is one that addresses sin and the dangers of it. Biblical Christianity, the message of the Apostle, not only here in Galatians, but if you go to Peter, and if you go to the Book of Romans, and if you go to 1 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians, and 1 Thessalonians, and 2 Thessalonians, if you go through the New Testament, you will see that the Apostles and the Prophets chose to speak about one of the main dangers that we face, and that is the nature of sin that is within us. In times, brothers and sisters, in which it is better and easier for us to speak about emotions and feelings, it is important that we acknowledge that within ourselves there is the presence of sin that can lead us unto death.

Biblical salvation crucifies the flesh, its passions, and desires. What does it mean, then? It only means this. That now, because of the work of the Holy Spirit that is in us, we do no longer have only the presence of sin and desires and flesh within us, but we have the presence of the Spirit. And because of the presence of the Spirit, we have a conflict that is within us.

And the conflict that exists within the Christian is guaranteed that is going to be won, and that is going to be victory, the victory of the Holy Spirit. That victory is not going to happen after five years of being a Christian. That victory is going to happen when we die to this body and we're taken up in glory. This will be the final victory of the Spirit that is now dwelling in us because by grace we become the temple of the Holy Spirit. And because of that, the Christian alone is given the ability to walk in alignment with the Spirit of the Lord.

The one that is not in Christ does not have the ability or power to walk in alignment with the things of the Lord, but the one who set their minds on things of the flesh will not be able to please the Lord, because it's only by setting our minds on the things of the Spirit. These are the two groups of people that exist in this world. We can divide people by their income or by their race or where they come from, but when it comes to spiritual matters, Everyone who lives on this earth is either on the side of the flesh, in which we are born by nature, or on the side of the spirit, in which we are begotten again by the work of the spirit. And we have now the spirit in us that is leading us to Christ's likeness. The apostle speaks of this in Romans chapter 8.

If you come with me, please, to Romans chapter 8, and I will finish very soon. It says in Romans chapter 8, if you pay attention there, speaking of walking in the flesh and walking in the spirit, Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, verse 5. Romans chapter 8, verse 5. Romans chapter 8, verse 5.

Romans chapter 8, verse 5. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

He continues, you, however, speaking about those who have received biblical salvation, you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. So Galatians chapter 5 verse 24, those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires. Anyone, the apostle says here, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to Jesus. Because the one who does not have the Spirit of Christ in them will be submitted to the passions of the flesh and to the desires of the flesh.

So he continues in verse 10, But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. In other words, although you are living in a body that is dead, The spirit will live because of the righteousness of Christ. And this is what the apostle says in Galatians 2, verse 20, For I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ who lives in me. And the life that now I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

That is that the Christian now has this duality that is going on within ourselves, that we have the power of sin that can be only overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's why he says in verse 11, who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. That is that these mortal bodies that are going to die and they're going to perish, they will be given life, brethren. There is going to be one day in which even though we die to these weak bodies with the infirmities of our years and with the pains that we have, the promise of the Spirit is this. Not only that sin is not going to conquer us in this life, but when we die, we're going to be resurrected in the newness of bodies.

This is the adoption of our bodies. And then the new body with the Spirit that God has given us will enter us into the presence of Christ once for all, never to be separated. This is the hope that we have as Christians, brethren, that we don't belong to this world, that there is an enemy that is in us and around us, but this enemy does not have the power to overcome those who have been biblically saved, because those who have been biblically saved have crucified the flesh. In other words, it is dead, no longer has the power to dominate it. It is present within us, but no longer has the power to overcome us, no longer has the power to make the desires of the flesh and the passions of our flesh are mastered.

But because of the presence of the spirit, we have the power within us to overcome the passions of the flesh and the passions of the or the desires of our sin. That's why he says in verse 12 and read with me. And I'm sorry about the long reading, but he says in verse 12. So then, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs, with God, provided we suffer with Him, in order that we might also be glorified with Him.

We have not only been liberated from the power of sin. Liberation is not enough. We have been made the children of God. So when we were liberated from the power of the sin that is within us, when the sin was crucified with his passions and desires, the exchange to that was not only freedom, but it was childhood. We have become the sons and daughters of God, and because we are sons, then we are the heirs.

Let me return to the text and finish in two minutes with this. What is the call of the Christian? The call of the Christian, it is not to live according to the passions of our flesh, but the call to the Christian is to live and to walk in the Spirit. Pay attention to verse 24. It says in verse 24 of the passage that we had, it says, verse 24, and those who, oh, verse 25, I'm sorry.

Verse 25, if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. If we have received life by the Spirit, if we have been biblically and genuinely saved, if the life that we have is not human life, but life that comes from above, if the Spirit is in us, Then we are to walk, not according to the passions of our flesh or deeds that are stealing us, but we are to live by the Spirit that has been given and granted unto us. And if we live by the Spirit, we are now led by the Spirit. And if we are led by the Spirit, we are no longer under the condemnation of the law that points to our unrighteousness, but rather we are under the power of grace. Verse 18, office or the role of the law, it is to point to your sin and to your passions and the desires of the flesh.

But if we walk by the Spirit, the result of the walk of the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit, verse 22, and against those things which are the fruit of the Spirit there is no law. But let me just simply just finalize with this. How are we to walk in the Spirit? How are we to be led by the Spirit? It is very interesting, or perhaps I hope, all the information that we have said about the presence of sin being in us, and the world that takes place within our passions, and the fact that our passions do not want us to do the will of the Lord, and the fact that if we live according to the flesh, there is going to be death.

But how are we to walk in the Spirit? How are we to give our lives unto the Lord so that we will grow in maturity? There's a powerful passage in Hebrews and I will finish with this if you come to Hebrews chapter 5. Come with me to Hebrews chapter 5. Let me just leave you with these comments.

Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5 verse 11. Hebrews chapter 5 verse 11. It says, about this, everything that the apostle has been saying up to this point, which is very difficult to understand, he says, 11, about this, we have much to say, and it is hard to explain. Why is it hard to explain, Apostle, since you have become dull of hearing?

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God." And we could replace oracles there with the Word of God. Once again, 12, for though by this time you to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the Word of God. You need milk. When he says that, he's not happy.

He's a little bit upset there. You need milk. not solid food for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child and he child is not referring to five or four year old is referring to spiritually speaking but solid food is for the mature for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil How are we going to walk in the Spirit? How are we going to be aligned with the Spirit? How are we going to defeat the passions of our flesh, our desires, and temptations?

By the truth of Christ that sets us free. It is Christ Jesus, the one who sets us free. It is the truth of God, the one that sets us free from our sins. And in the Word of God, in the oracles of God, we have everything that Christ is and everything that Christ has done. And when we come to the Word of God to see Christ and the completed and finished work of our Savior, we're not only learning and obtaining information into our brains, but we are growing in conformity to the one who is truth, Jesus Christ.

And the more that we explore, and the more that we meditate, and the more that we treasure up the Word of the Lord in our hearts, the more that we are taken by the message of the one who gave his life for us, The more that our thoughts are high and not according to this world, the more that we seek to Him and not see ourselves, the more that we meditate on the completed work of Jesus and know my performance yesterday or the day before, the more that I think about the promise of Christ and know what is going to happen with my work next week or the day after, the more that I work through the Word of God in knowing Jesus Christ. The more that the self that is within me is going to be overcome by the power of Jesus, and the more that I'm going to understand the word of the Savior, and the more that I'm going to grow in understanding of the one who loved me and gave himself for me. And Christianity, it is not only about accumulating theology in our heads, but it's about truth that becomes discernment. Because the next time that I'm tempted to see, the next time that I'm tempted to go, the next time that I'm tempted to speak, the next time that I'm tempted to do with my hand, I will have the words of Christ in my heart. When I wake up in the morning and I don't have the energy to read the Scriptures and I don't have the energy to pray, I will have the Word of God, not inked on my head, but on my heart.

When that temptation comes, when that difficulty comes, that I'm not even able to open the book, The Word of the Lord will be within me, and within me the Spirit of God will lead me to the ways of the Savior, and within me the same Spirit will lead me into the ways of Jesus Christ, and there my flesh will not prevail. Not because I have grown in maturity, and I have done this for these many years, but because the Word of God is within us. The duty of the Christian is this, to know your Savior more and more, to understand who Christ Jesus is more and more, to ask yourself the question, what happened upon that cross that day more and more, to understand what he has done for his people more and more, to understand the promise of Christ in the future more and more, and the more that you give yourself to know him, He will bless you with more of Him in you. And the more that we have more of Him in us, the less that we will have of the passions of our flesh. And we will find ourselves not walking according to the flesh, but walking according to the Spirit.

Have you crucified the flesh with its passions and desires? Have you crucified sin within yourselves with its passions and desires? The only way in which a Christian can crucify the flesh with its passions and desires is not by following a plan to be more moral, to be a better husband and wife, but is by pointing our eyes to Jesus Christ through the Word. So that we are no longer children, toes and throat by the wind, by every wind of doctrine, the apostle says in Ephesians chapter 4. We are no longer just walking in this milk, but we want to have the word of the Lord in us.

Because when temptation comes, it is not about our experience, but it's more about what the Spirit of God does in us. May the Lord Jesus Christ be glorified in his people, because this glorious biblical salvation that we have does not only require the proclamation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, does not only produce a new life within us, does not only give us the promise that is kept and secure, does not only give us the promise that we can biblically obey, does not only give us gifts that we can use to serve one another, but also give us of the Spirit of Christ by whom we walk and live in this time, so that we wait for the coming of the Savior when we are going to be with Him, never to be separated. Amen? Amen. Let us pray.

Father, as we come before you, I give you thanks, Lord, for the words that we have before us and the opportunity that you give us, Lord, even just to read these scriptures. As I have my brothers and my sisters here present, I pray, O Lord, that you will grant us more of your spirit, that you will give us more of your word, that you will lead us more in ways of righteousness, O Lord. You know how feeble and easily distracted we are. You know, Lord, how our suffering, our challenge, our difficulty, Lord, how easily it turns our eyes to self instead of our eyes to Jesus Christ. I pray, Lord, please, that you will bless us, Lord, in our weaknesses, in our feebleness, in our distractions, with more of your Holy Spirit, so that when we hear this commandment, these instructions of the Apostle, to walk by the Spirit, so that we will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

these desires that are making worry within ourselves, these desires that want us not to do according to your will. I pray, O Lord, that you will grant us the strength that is needed. If there is anyone within the sound of my voice that is being, even now, heavily tempted in things that are of the flesh, Lord, if there is anyone that is heavily struggling, Lord, within, and even failing, Lord, in things of the flesh, Lord, I pray that even now, Lord, you will grant us of your spirit and that you will give us the strength that is needed. We come before you, Lord, and we confess our sins before you, Lord. We know that you're just and faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So we come to you, Christ, you who are the fountain of freedom, you who are the fountain of liberation, you who are the fountain of peace, oh Christ, we come before you. And I pray, Lord, that you will bless us with more of you, less of us, that you will do this for your glory, that you will strengthen us, Lord, so that we will learn to love you and to love one another as you have called us to do. We give you thanks, Lord, for these scriptures that we have read. And please, Lord, that these might not just simply be things that we say, that I say, that we hear, that they hear, Lord, but that by your Holy Spirit, we will not only be hearers of your word, but doers of your word. Protect us from ourselves, Lord, that we may not think that our greatest enemy is outside of us, that we may not think that our greatest enemy is just next to us, Lord, but rather that we may know that our greatest enemy is inside of us.

So make us humble, Lord. Make us dependent upon Christ. Make us always deciding to follow your ways. Make us, Lord, consider our days, the futility of our days, and even how we use our time and how we spend ourselves, Lord, that we'll be for your glory and for the benefit of your people and your kingdom. I pray that you will do this in Jesus' name.

Amen.